Ocean updates served in stragglers, flocks, and set waves

Sold to developers for $150 million

Point Conception, the grand elbow in California’s coastline, has been sold along with more than 25,000 acres of undeveloped coastal ranches. Surfline has the story along with a prognosis.

Sitting some 50 miles west of Santa Barbara, Point Conception is where Southern California officially begins. The privately held ranches always served as a sort of insulation protecting the Central Coast from the insane development of points south. The ranches also harbored a handful of mysto surf breaks, accessible only by boat, rumored to be so perfect that you couldn’t even see them unless you had been previously anointed by some member of the pantheon.

The article is well researched and thoughtful. The buyer, a firm called Coastal Management Resources, is at least making noises about appreciating the area’s fine natural resources. And nearby military operations place restrictions on what exactly can be built in the area. But for $150 million, you have to believe they’ve got bigger plans for it than putting up some outdoor showers and giving the rest to the Nature Conservancy. Cross your fingers.

Hola Davito. I hope your dejected outlook sets the stage for some happy surprise, if only of the “it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared” variety.

This sale is odd. As far as surf breaks go, I’m sure I would never see the Pt. Conception spots as long as they stayed under lock and key. Development could open them up so that people like me could finally get a glimpse…and yet likely the lineup would become as cluttered as Rincon, Malibu, etc., and it wouldn’t be worth having a look.

But perhaps neither scenario is to be. Perhaps what they have in mind is some super-upscale development behind whose gates the breaks are destined to sit, unseen by the masses. It happened at Pt. Dume.

About the Scribbler

Hugh Powell is a little weary of big-ticket items like Pluto, the Mars rover, and small fossilized humans getting all the science news coverage. Keep an eye out here for wisps and scraps you won't find anywhere else. Particularly about the ocean, which is really cool and, honestly speaking, much bigger than you think.